Tag Archives: Islamic State

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday he backed diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the Syrian civil war, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over more than six years of conflict, as Islamic State militants near defeat. Mattis was traveling to Finland to meet with …

A spokesman for U.S.-backed local forces in Syria says more than a hundred people have been killed in a truck bomb blast in eastern Syria. Mustafa Bali of the Syrian Democratic Forces says the victims were refugees from the war the Islamic State group in the region. He said the …

The Syrian government declared victory over Islamic State in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor on Friday, a big blow to the jihadists as their last stronghold in Syria crumbles. Deir al-Zor, on the west bank of the Euphrates River, is the largest and most important city in eastern Syria, …

The driver who plowed down pedestrians and cyclists on a New York bike path is a “soldier of the caliphate,” the ISIS terror group said on its weekly newspaper, without providing evidence to back up its claim. The attack Tuesday killed eight people and left more than a dozen others …

Osama bin Laden’s personal diary, video of his son Hamza’s wedding and documentaries about himself were among files found on the al-Qaeda leader’s computer, the CIA has revealed. Nearly half a million of the files have been released, the fourth such tranche. Bin Laden’s computer was taken during the 2011 US …

A former Marine Corps drill instructor was “drunk on power” and targeted three Muslim recruits for abuse, prosecutors said at the opening of his court-martial on charges including cruelty and maltreatment. Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix punched, choked and kicked recruits at the Marine Corps’ Parris Island, South Carolina, training center, …

by Graham Fuller Washington media, think tanks, various commentators and now John McCain continue hammering on an old theme— that the US has “no policy towards the Middle East.” This is fake analysis. In fact the US very much does have a long-standing policy towards the Middle East. It’s just …

Eight people were killed and about a dozen more were injured Tuesday when a motorist in a rented pickup truck deliberately drove down a bike path in lower Manhattan and mowed down several people before crashing into a school bus. Officials said it was a terrorist attack — the deadliest …

The Latest on the war in Syria (all times local): 8 p.m. A Syrian government official says Islamic State militants have released 25 apparent hostages as they retreated from a town in the central Homs province. Homs Governor Talal Barazi tells The Associated Press Sunday there are another 19 people …

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pledged on Tuesday a return to a moderate past and looked forward to a technology-driven future. “We are returning to what we were before — a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world,” he told the Future …

A British man who has been fighting so-called Islamic State in Syria has been killed while clearing landmines in Raqqa, the BBC understands. Jac Holmes had been fighting with Kurdish militia the YPG since 2015. Kurdish representatives in the UK said they had been told by YPG officials the former …

American troops who came under fire in Niger during a deadly ambush this month might have waited more than an hour before calling for help, the top United States military officer said on Monday. Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he did …

The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local): 12:55 p.m. The spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants says contacts with Russia are underway to avoid friction on the ground between U.S.-allied fighters and Syrian troops backed by Moscow around Syria’s largest oil field, coveted by both …

Former Marine Kevin Howard claimed scores of kills as a sniper volunteering this year with a militia fighting Islamic State in Syria. He wanted to help people, Howard had said this summer, especially Christians who were being persecuted for their faith just as they had been in areas where he …

efense Secretary James N. Mattis, troubled by a lack of information two weeks after an ambush on a special operations patrol in Niger left four U.S. soldiers dead, is demanding a timeline of what is known about the attack, as a team of investigators sent to West Africa begins its …

American-backed forces have barely begun to clear the land mines from Raqqa after pushing the Islamic State from the city, the de facto capital of its self-declared caliphate. But the militants’ defeat there is already setting the stage for a new round of conflict and instability in Syria’s long civil …

Saudi Arabia is to monitor interpretations of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) teachings to prevent them being used to justify violence or terrorism, the Culture and Information Ministry has said. In a decree, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud ordered the establishment of an authority to scrutinise uses of the hadith …

Former Chief of Army Staff General (r) Raheel Sharif has said that it was an honour for him to be part of Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance as a commander. Addressing the Middle East Military Alliance and Coordination Conference, General (r) Raheel Sharif on Tuesday said that Muslim countries were facing …

The United States said it launched its first attack on Daesh’s deadly Yemen branch on Monday with a series of nighttime air strikes that residents said targeted two villages and killed several people. Unmanned US drones launched around 12 missiles at militant positions in Yakla and Al Abl in southern …

A US-backed alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters says it has taken full control of so-called Islamic State’s one-time “capital” of Raqqa. Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Sello said the fighting was over after a four-month assault. Clearing operations were now under way to uncover any jihadist sleeper cells …

Syrian Islamic State fighters are set to abandon Raqqa in a withdrawal agreed with U.S.-backed Syrian militias that have them surrounded, a militia spokesman said on Saturday, as the jihadists’ defeat in their former Syrian capital edged closer. Officials gave conflicting accounts on whether foreign fighters would also be leaving …

Syrian government forces and their allies on Saturday said they seized the town of Mayadeen, an Islamic State stronghold in the country’s east, in a major gain in the race for territories previously held by the militant group. The announcement came as U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they were in …

Ali Shehadeh, a seed hunter, opened the folders with the greatest of care. Inside each was a carefully dried and pressed seed pod: a sweet clover from Egypt, a wild wheat found only in northern Syria, an ancient variety of bread wheat. He had thousands of these folders stacked neatly …

By Farhana Qazi Who has the right to issue a fatwa, an Islamic ruling, is an important question that is confused by born-again scholars and unlearned authority figures. Today, there are thousands, if not millions, of Muslim scholars issuing legal edicts on wide-ranging subjects. What’s troubling is that hardliners as well …

Image copyrightUNKNOWN British IS recruiter Sally-Anne Jones was reportedly killed in a US drone strike in Syria, in June. Jones, from Chatham in Kent, joined so-called Islamic State after converting to Islam and travelling to Syria in 2013. Her death was first reported by The Sun. The BBC’s security correspondent Frank …

Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of allowing Islamic State to operate “under its nose” in Syria, saying Washington was letting the militant group move about freely in an area abutting a U.S. military base. The allegations, made by Russia’s Defense Ministry, center on a U.S. military base at …

The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) continued their push towards the strategic Al-‘Umar Oil Fields, today, liberating a new town along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Led by the 4th Mechanized Division and 5th Legion, the Syrian Arab Army attacked the town of Hatla Al-Shaqiyah in eastern Deir Ezzor, …

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday that the United States was serving the interests of Islamic State by preventing the Syrian army and its allies advancing in some areas of eastern Syria. American jets have this year targeted pro-government militias in eastern Syria that were advancing towards Washington’s …

Iran, Iraq and Turkey have agreed to create a triple military alliance as the first step towards growing cooperation in mutual defense and regional security. The creation of the “military triangle” was highlighted yesterday in a report published by Fars News Agency, the principal news outlet for the Islamic Revolutionary …

A shooting at a royal palace in Saudi Arabia has left two security guards dead and three others injured, according to state media. A Saudi interior ministry statement said a 28-year-old man was killed after he drove up to the Al Salam palace gates in Jeddah and shot at security. …

A jihadist plot to attack New York City including Times Square and the subway system was foiled with the help of an undercover FBI agent, officials say. One man in the US and two others in Pakistan and the Philippines are under arrest and face charges of plotting the attacks …

Syrian government forces pushed into one of the last remaining urban strongholds of the Islamic State group in the country’s east on Friday, following days of fierce fighting and intense Russian airstrikes that involved cruise missiles from the Mediterranean, activists and officials said. The push into the town of Mayadeen …

The 2017 Gulf Crisis between Qatar and its GCC neighbors has developed into a clash of narratives that concerns not only the various regional interests in the Middle East, but also vital U.S. national interests. The Quartet (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt) has justified its embargo against Qatar due to its alleged political, ideological and financial support to non-state terror …

The Islamic State group on Tuesday claimed responsibility for a pair of suicide bombings in the Syrian capital that killed 17 civilians and policemen the previous day. In Monday’s bombings, two men attacked a police station in the al-Midan neighborhood with several bombs, before one of them blew himself up, …

Jordan hopes a cease-fire it helped negotiate in neighboring southern Syria will eventually lead to a secure border, the reopening of a vital trade crossing and a gradual return home for Syrian war refugees who sought asylum in the kingdom. For now, these goals seem out of reach as key …

Two women were killed in southern France on Sunday by an assailant armed with a knife, in an attack that forced the evacuation of a major train station, the authorities said. The assailant was fatally shot by a military patrol after killing the women in front of the Saint-Charles train …

A Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey crashed on a coalition base in Syria early Friday morning, injuring two American troops in a combat zone where the United States maintains Special Operations forces and artillery support. The aircraft is a “total loss,” having experienced what the military refers to as a hard landing …

The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, seems to have broken his 11-month silence with a long audio message in which he mocks the United States, calls on jihadis to rally against the Syrian regime and insists that ISIS ‘remains’ despite its rapid loss …

The Islamic State militant group (ISIS) claimed the capture of two Russian soldiers in its last major Syrian stronghold on Thursday. The radical Islamist group announced via its Amaq News Agency that it captured the Russian troops in the village of Ash Sholah, located in the countryside of the eastern Syrian …

A British film-maker has been killed while working alongside Kurdish forces fighting Islamic State in Syria, his friends and Kurdish activists have said. Mehmet Aksoy, 32, from London, was not fighting but working as a press officer for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) when the military base in which he was …

Syria’s government has produced much more power in recent months as the army recaptured natural gas fields from militants, the electricity ministry said on Tuesday. Bassam Darwish, head of the electricity ministry’s planning unit, told Reuters that the amount of gas the petroleum ministry provided to fuel power plants has …

Six U.S. air strikes on an Islamic State desert camp in Libya killed 17 militants and destroyed three vehicles, the U.S. military said on Sunday, the first American strikes in Libya since President Donald Trump took office in January. U.S. Africa Command said in a statement that strikes on Friday …

Russia’s Defense Ministry says a general has been killed in fighting in Syria. The ministry said Sunday that Lt. Gen. Valery Asapov “was at a command post of Syrian troops, assisting the Syrian commanders in the operation for the liberation of the city of Deir ez-Zor.” State news agency Tass …

A British general in Iraq has said the deaths of innocent people caught up in coalition air strikes against Isis are the “price you pay” for defeating the extremists. More than 5,000 civilians have been killed in attacks by the US-led mission against militant strongholds in Iraq and Syria, independent …